Communication research techniques - Essay Example

The positivist view is sometimes referred to as a scientist ideology, and is often shared by technocrats who believe in the necessity of progress through scientific progress, and by Naturalism, who argue that any method for gaining knowledge should be limited to natural, physical, and material approaches. As an approach to the philosophy of science deriving from Enlightenment thinkers like Pierre-Simon Laplace (and many others), positivism was first systematically theorized by Comte, who saw the scientific method as replacing metaphysics in the history of thought, and who observed the circular dependence of theory and observation in science.

Comte was thus one of the leading thinkers of the social evolutionism thought. Comte was heavily influential to Brazilian thinkers. They turned to his ideas about training scientific elite in order to flourish in the industrialization process. Some Brazilians were intrigued by this model that was present in the French revolution and Enlightenment ideas. However, this created issues with the church because these positivist ideas were secular and encouraged the separation of Church and state. Brazil's national motto, Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") was taken from Comte's positivism, also influential in Poland.

Positivism is the most evolved stage of society in anthropological evolutionism, the point where science and rational explanation for scientific phenomena develops. In a positivist view of the world, science was seen as the way to get at truth, to understand the world well enough so that we might predict and control it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism) In light of positivism and post-positivism, researchers and scientists should endeavor to always think about the assumptions made about the world during the conducting of research.

Post positivism Post-positivism is also called post-empiricism, and is a meta-theoretical stance following positivism. One major advocate of post-positivism was Sir Karl Popper. Others like Nicholas Rescher and John Dewey have also been mentioned in connection with post positivism. Post positivism is a research position or mentality that recognizes most of the criticisms that have been identified against traditional logical positivism, but is also critical about the misconceptions about positivism itself.

Thus, post-positivists believe that human knowledge is not based on unchallengeable, rock-solid foundations; it is conjectural. But they think we do have real grounds, or warrants, for asserting these beliefs or conjectures, although these warrants can be modified or withdrawn in the light of further investigation.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpositivism) One very common form of post-positivism is a philosophy known as critical realism. Critical realism postulates that there is a reality that can be scientifically studied, which is independent of our thoughts.

This contrasts with the subjectivist view which holds that there is no external reality, and that we are all making this up. Positivists are also realists. The difference between positivism and po